Norway’s Saga Energy signed a €2.5 billion ($2.94 billion) deal in Tehran on Tuesday to build solar power plants in Iran, the company said, just days after US President Donald Trump unveiled a more confrontational policy toward Tehran.

Saga’s preliminary agreement with Iran’s state-owned Amin Energy Developers was the latest in a flurry of deals by foreign companies since the easing of international sanctions on the country in 2016 after it agreed to limits on its disputed nuclear program, Reuters reported.

“The deal, which still depends on finalizing economic guarantees from Tehran, would see the construction over a four- to five-year period of 2 gigawatts of power generation capacity,” Saga Energy Spokesman Rune Haaland said.

“Norway is fully committed to the JCPOA [Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers] and this is proof that we have taken the opening very seriously, and we will see more investment very soon,” said Norwegian Ambassador Lars Nordrum who hosted the signing at his residence in Tehran.

According to IRNA, the new solar capacity will be installed in three development phases in six regions, including the torrid central and eastern provinces of Khorasan Razavi, Kerman and Yazd.

Initially, around 180 megawatts of the capacity are planned for launch by March 2018, the end of the present fiscal year.

“The company will rely on banks, pension funds and Norwegian state export guarantees to fund the plan, and aims to recoup its investment through a 25-year deal on electricity prices,” he added.

While Saga and Lithuania’s SoliTek will produce the solar panels, much of the remaining equipment will come from Taiwan’s Delta Electronics Inc.

“They will provide all the installations of electronics such as inverters, for example,” Haaland said of Delta.

“Eventually, the plan is to build a plant in Iran to churn out solar panels.”

On Friday, Trump announced that he would decertify the 2015 nuclear agreement reached under his predecessor, Barack Obama, leaving its fate to the US Congress which might try to modify it or bring back sanctions previously imposed on Iran.

“We are a little bit worried about what Trump is doing; we are very much in favor of the atomic deal, but we will of course continue with our plans whatever Trump does, no doubt about that, nothing can change that,” Saga’s Haaland said.

“We hope to build a factory in Iran to build the panels so that we are also generating jobs,” said Saga’s development manager, Gaute Steinkopf, at the signing.

“I’d like to thank Norway, which has always been one of the best friends to Iran, for this exciting opportunity,” said Saeed Zakeri, Amin’s head of international affairs.

Weeks after Norway’s government proposed that the country’s $1-trillion fund divest from pure exploration and production oil companies, the cabinet said that it will allow the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund to invest in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure.

Norway took a partial step in divesting oil and gas stocks in its massive $1-trillion wealth fund, approving the sale of smaller exploration companies while sparing the biggest producers such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp.

So far this winter, Europe has been the biggest buyer of US liquefied natural gas, and despite the fact that the key reason has been profit rather than politics, US LNG has increased its share of a market dominated by pipeline supplies from Russia and Norway.

Global gas production grew at a record clip in 2018, driven by North America.The industry achieved a net production increase of 164 billion cubic meters, which represents the highest production growth since 2010, according to research by Rystad Energy.

Me-Metals: Behrouz Borna; member of Iran Minerals Production and Supply Company (IMPASCO) board of directors said: Regarding high attention of IMPASCO to the exploration sectors and extensive exploration operations in some parts of country, we have been able to convert Lead mine of Nakhlak which didn’t have harvestable resources before and had been changed to old Nakhlak, to young Nakhlak through exploring new resources.

ME-METALS: Middle East Mines and Mineral Industries Development Holding Company (MIDHCO) had an active presence at the 18th International Exhibition of the Environment held in Tehran International Exhibition Center on 24-27 Farvardin 1398 (13-16 Apr 2019). Various senior officials visited the exhibition and MIDHCO’s stand including Dr. Eisa Kalantari (head of EPA Iran) and Dr. Masoumeh Ebtekar (Vice President of Iran for Women & Family Affairs & former head of EPA Iran). They have been personally informed about the environmental achievements of this great holding.

Iron ore concentrate production by major Iranian companies increased 17 percent year-on-year in the year to March 2019, exceeding 45 million tons, according to Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO).

Iran exported 4.89 million tons of steel ingots in the year to March 2019, of which 67 percent were sent to target markets in the form of billets and blooms, according to figures by the Iranian Steel Producers Association (ISPA).

Me-Metals: Behrouz Rahmati stock and investment affairs director of National Iranian Copper Industries Co. (NICICO) said: with a great deal of efforts of our colleagues in the export department of the company, the first 50000 tons export shipment of NICICO left Iran to export destinations, Saturday morning, 7 Farvardin 1398 (27 March 2019).

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